Tiger can’t be tamed
Is anyone ever going to challenge Tiger Woods’ position as king
of the mountain on the PGA Tour?
NBC commentator Johnny Miller posed a similar question to Woods
after his lopsided win in the Accenture Match Play Championship
last weekend in Arizona.
Tiger can’t be tamed
Is anyone ever going to challenge Tiger Woods’ position as king of the mountain on the PGA Tour?
NBC commentator Johnny Miller posed a similar question to Woods after his lopsided win in the Accenture Match Play Championship last weekend in Arizona.
To paraphrase, Miller wondered when another young phenom – who wasn’t intimidated by Tiger Woods or all that he has done – would come out on Tour and challenge the No. 1 player in the world because, up until this point, nobody has?
Miller wondered when a young gun – who played as if the cups were a foot wide – would take over Woods’ 10-year reign at the top of the golfing world?
After all, Woods is 32 years old. Isn’t it about time for some 20-something year old to step up and take over? Woods’ reign on Tour is like a dictatorship now, as he’s been unopposed out there since his rookie season.
I’m starting to get a little concerned for him because when all is said and done if Woods’ competition doesn’t step up to the plate, it could hamper future debates about who the greatest ever was.
Record wise, Tiger Woods will most likely shatter all of Jack Nicklaus’ records that currently stand on the PGA Tour, including his 18 Major Championships.
More proof of that came when Woods cruised to an 8-and-7 victory over his latest victim Stewart Cink last Sunday. It was a win that made it four in a row on Tour for Woods and 15 out of 26 starts in World Golf Championship events. The win also marked the 63rd time that Woods has won the PGA Tour – just one win shy of tying Ben Hogan’s career total in this department.
The question is who is challenging Woods? Where is his real competition?
Nicklaus had Player, Palmer, Watson, Trevino, Kite, Floyd, Norman, etc, etc, etc, to push him. Hogan had Snead and Nelson. Just as Ali had Frazier and McEnroe had Connors.
All great athletes need to be tested. That is where greatness kicks in. Why were the 49ers so great in the 1980s? One reason could be because Steve Young was pushing Joe Montana for the starting quareterback job.
Yet there’s nobody even close to Tiger’s level on today’s Tour. He is human. He eats, sleeps and breathes. Why can’t anyone beat him? The answer might be in a snapshot of today’s top players: Mickelson, Singh, Els, Choi and Leonard… All of these guys are over 30 for starters – and none could hold a candle to the guys that pushed Nicklaus. A fact that should bear some weight in future debates, no pun intended.
Last week, I felt like screaming when the tournament came on and Woods had a seven-hole lead with about a half-dozen to go. I wanted to see some exciting golf. Instead, I saw another installment of the Tiger Woods’ ass-kicking, decade-long mini series. No big surprise here. Stewart Cink, who played great golf all week, folds like an accordion to Mr. Woods and suffers an 8-and-7 loss. Folks, an 8-and-7 loss in match play is an embarrassing blowout. It would be like shooting an 81 in stroke play to finish second while the winner fired a 66.
NBC didn’t even know what to do. The allotted coverage was supposed to end at 3 p.m. Yet Woods had already picked up his check just after 2 p.m.
Somehow this is what these Tour pros do when they go up against Woods, who at 32, should be starting to drop off his level of play just a bit.
What surprises me is you’d think that if Woods has caused the interest level in golf to explode that someone somewhere would come out on Tour and test this guy. Obviously, Woods’ success is a direct result of his raw talent, but that shouldn’t have anything to do with other pros looking like weekend hacks every time they are paired up with him.
Many people don’t watch golf because they think it’s boring. I never thought I’d say this but Woods is so good that he’s starting to make the telecasts boring even for me.
It used to be a thrill to watch him cruise to record wins, now it’s so commonplace that it has become boring. It’s getting to the point where if Tiger is in the tournament we know the result before a shot is struck in the opening round, so does he – and so too does his competition, evidently.
Competition? What competition?
